Our New Newsletter Is Out in January… and a Word About Ethics in the Business of Being a Landlord

We are now closing for the Christmas and New Year break. However, our still free, new quarterly newsletter will go out in the first or second week of January, so look out for this and remember to put our email address, [email protected] in your whitelist to ensure you receive it. If you don’t already get the newsletter but would like […]

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Mortgage Tracker Rates Open Letter to Andrew Tyrie MP

In this letter to Andrew Tyrie MP I ask him to take action to stop mortgage lenders cheating their buy to let Bank of England (BOE) mortgage tracker rate customers by invoking small print terms in separate documents that were never meant to apply to BOE tracker loans. I have highlighted this by illustrating from my own personal experience with […]

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West Bromwich Building Society Mortgage Rate Hike

David Lawrenson, private rented sector expert and director of LettingFocus.com, highlights the risks to lenders of invoking terms in the small print of mortgage contracts to hike landlords’ tracker mortgage rates. At previous blog posts we predicted that it was likely that other lenders would follow the Bank of Ireland’s move in hiking interest rates on buy to let mortgage […]

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When is a Tracker Mortgage Not Really a Tracker Mortgage and How More Lenders Are Giving Themselves Get-Out Clauses

David Lawrenson of private rent consultants, LettingFocus.com explains how mortgage lenders have now set up get out clauses within their tracker mortgage deals which are so wide that the industry could eventually be forced to stop marketing them as tracker deals. He also predicts that the Bank of Ireland “rate hike” case will result in a victory for those landlords […]

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Mortgage Loans and Housing Benefit and Why a Selective Approach is the Better Option

David Lawrenson of www.LettingFocus.com observes the latest mortgage lender U turn on allowing landlords to let to housing benefit tenants, but says that rather than a “blanket” approach of either allowing or not allowing landlords to do this, a better way would be if lenders “selectively” allowed it – with the decision linked to other variables such as landlord experience […]

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Nationwide Mortgage Works Housing Benefit U Turn

David Lawrenson of Private Rented Sector Consultants LettingFocus.com looks at why some mortgage lenders don’t want to allow landlords to let to tenants who are dependent on housing benefit to pay their rent. Last week, at this blog, I looked at Nationwide’s new policy (for the Mortgage Works) to not allow landlords taking out mortgages or remortgages with them to […]

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The Impact of Landlord Regulation on Buy to Let Mortgage Terms, Conditions and Availability

Many buy to let mortgage lenders are still not “ahead of the curve” in terms of understanding the impact of legal and regulatory changes in the private rented sector – and this often leaves their own businesses exposed to losses, says David Lawrenson of private rented consultancy, www.LettingFocus.com In an interesting piece in Joanne Atkin’s “Mortgage Finance Gazette”, Paul Walshe […]

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Buy to Let Mortgages and Tenants on Benefits

Some mortgage lenders still don’t let landlords who have mortgage loans with them to let their properties to tenants who are on benefits. Many private landlords are reluctant to let to tenants who are dependent on housing benefits, preferring tenants who do not have to rely on the state for any assistance. There are a number of reasons why: 1. […]

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Getting the Best Buy to Let Mortgage Deal for You

In this blog post, private rented sector expert, David Lawrenson of www.LettingFocus.com looks at how to get the most suitable mortgage deal. I’m often somewhat surprised by the fuss folks make about getting a mortgage and some of the wrong decisions they make too. To us it seems pretty simple. The first question to ask is for how long you […]

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